Summary

Randy Fox: Good morning. I am on the phone today, and delighted to be, with John A. Warnick, a friend, colleague, mentor, and head of an organization called the Purposeful Planning Institute, a national organization that is ... three hundred plus members, John A?

John A Warnick: Right at three hundred and fifty, Randy.

Randy Fox: With a diversified membership that purports to teach us not only collaboration and multidisciplinary practice, but also to make our planning purposeful. Today, John A. and I are going to talk about an upcoming conference that he's holding in Colorado called Fusion Collaboration. John A., tell us a little bit about Fusion and what it's about and why you've chosen to put this conference on.

John A Warnick: Thank you, Randy. It's really an honor to be with you. You know, the word fusion means a lot of things to different people. To us, at the Purposeful Planning Institute, fusion kind of has a dual meaning. We could talk about means and ends for fusion. The end side of fusion is I consider fusion to be what results, what are the outcomes, when we blend the very best of technical planning. The best tax, legal, financial planning, that technical planning being infused with, or integrated with, the best practices from the domains of legacy planning, relational dynamics and planning, and philanthropy. When you blend all of that together intentionally, and integrate it into your processes and delivery, the outcome is fusion.

The other way to look at fusion, and again we do look at it in both of these ways, is to look at what is the how behind fusion. What are the what's that fusion produces. I think when you look at it from the means, or how do we get to that outcome, we view fusion as really the combination of a new mindset. So thinking differently, around legacy, relational skills enter into this, and combining those with your technical expertise. It's the skill sets and the mindset that come together to make one aware of, and actually very committed and enthused about, the possibility of helping clients create fusion.

That's what fusion is all about, and Fusion Collaboration is a two day gathering. About seventy to eighty percent of the professionals that will come together are what I call front line advisors. They're coming from the financial, legal, and tax domains. We'll have wealth managers, life insurance professionals, trustees, estate planning, and tax attorneys, and we'll have CPA's there. That's going to be seventy to eighty percent of the attendee population. The balance are coming primarily from the consulting side. We're going to have the wealth psychologists, the legacy consultants, the philanthropic consultants, that all have skill sets and processes that can be combined, integrated, with what the technicians, that's the crowd I'm in, what we're doing.

We're going to have one day devoted entirely to fusion that's going to showcase the very best, and most practical today, technical topics and show how those get infused with these best practices. Then, we're going to have a day devoted to collaboration, as well.

Randy Fox: Being one who is going to be in attendance, I am excited about the possibility. I know I was at the last Fusion Collaboration and really saw the potential of what it could mean. This is something that you and I have been talking about for years and years, is how do we get all of the right professionals in the room, with the right skill sets, to help the family, the ultimate client, get the absolute best solution for their family. It's a challenge, it's a challenge we face every day.

John A Warnick: It really is, Randy.

Randy Fox: John, the dates and location, all the kind of technical details.

John A Warnick: Yeah, the logistical side of this. Fusion collaboration kicks off at eight o'clock on Tuesday, July 26 at the Omni Hotel and Resort in Interlaken, Colorado, which is basically a half hour by car from the Denver International Airport. It's about ten or twelve miles southeast of Boulder, so a little bit closer to Boulder than Denver, in a beautiful setting. Kind of nestled right up next to the mountains.

Randy Fox: People can find the information about this on the Purposeful Planning Institute website. That is ... give me the web address.

Randy Fox: John A., who are some of the key speakers? I think I remember that Jay Hughes is going to be speaking, is that correct?

John A Warnick: Yeah, we're going to have Jay Hughes. He's going to be there on the collaboration day, on Wednesday. Jay is going to share with us life lessons, professional life lessons, around collaboration from his spectacular professional journey. He's one of those unique individuals, an attorney by background, by training, who became really one of the most influential family wealth consultants in the world. For over thirty, thirty-five years, has been serving families on five continents, some of the wealthiest families in the world. Now, I think, has written five books. The first book was Family Wealth: Keeping it in the Family. Jay is an incredibly impactful persona, and those who haven't had a chance to hear him or meet him in person, this is a rare opportunity and treat.

We're going to have a best of Heckerling overview, ninety-minute session, so for those who would like to be able to distill into ninety minutes the most practical suggestions and hot topics from Heckerling we will have that on the first day, on the Fusion day. We're going to have a keynote from David York, who has just recently come out with a book entitled Entrusted. David is an ACTEC attorney who really has done as much work with family banks and the integration of values and education, financial competency, into the estate planning processes with his clients as any attorney I know. I heard him keynote a conference last fall, it was very dynamic.

We'll have Al King there from South Dakota Trust. Al is going to be speaking twice. Tom Rogerson will be there. That's just some of the headliners that will be speaking.

Randy Fox: Between Tom Rogerson and Jay Hughes, having them both at the same conference is really a unique and great opportunity for advisors to attend. The outreach here is to anybody involved facing a client, whether you're a charitable advisor, a financial advisor, an insurance professional, a CPA, an attorney. Any of those professions would get a great deal out of this conference, if I am hearing you correctly.

John A Warnick: Absolutely. In the afternoon of the Collaboration day is going to feature a 45 minute case study film that is very, very powerful. Then, we will have two hours of multi-disciplinary, collaborative interaction at tables of eight where we're going to be talking about what went wrong, and what could have been done, and what should have been done, and how might you re-mediate this. For those who work in the world of philanthropy, there is just a huge opportunity here to integrate into technical planning in a more meaningful way. Philanthropic values and philanthropic forms and functions, and it wasn't done well, and we'll be talking about what we should be doing better. For CAPs and those who are serving full time in the philanthropic domain, I think there's a lot at this conference as well.

Randy Fox: Again, just that kind of exercise ... I've been at and conducted those kinds of collaborative tables, it's so interesting to hear the perspective of other professionals, and how helpful a different viewpoint is in helping me, as a professional, grow. I see things how I see things. Knowing how a lawyer thinks about things, or how a CPA thinks about things, or how a psychologist thinks about things and views things, is so helpful to help round out and make me a better advisor.

John A Warnick: It is. Randy, one of the things that I think is unique about the design of Fusion Collaboration, and the Fusion day itself, is we designed this program, we had a very multi-disciplinary group that gets what Fusion is about and is very excited about trying to help share that with those who are beginning to see how important this is in the serving landscape. Every one of the breakouts is designed to deliver a tool. We should mention, Randy Fox is going to be delivering a tool and delivering a breakout on what I'm calling the philanthropic filter. This is going to be an extremely practical ... if you don't leave Fusion Collaboration with at least three or four new tools, on the Collaboration day there's going to be a chat breakout with John Dankovitch, which is basically a format for creating a collaborative framework and discussion, which is proving to be extremely powerful. This is a great takeaway, as well. There'll be very powerful takeaways in each one of the breakouts. Everybody that comes to Fusion Collaboration, I think, should have a goal of taking back to their practices at least three or four new tools that they can immediately begin to integrate into their practices.

Randy Fox: John A., the cost for this conference?

John A Warnick: The cost for Fusion Collaboration, for members of the Purposeful Planning Institute, until May 1, early-bird registration is $600. For non-members, $750. You don't have to be a member of the Purposeful Planning Institute to come, we anticipate that probably about half of the attendees will be PPI members, but we'd love to have everybody come. The other thing, Randy, is we anticipate we're going to be able to offer about twelve hours, ten to twelve hours, of CPE/CLE credits for those who attend.

Randy Fox: Well, John A., it sounds great. I'm excited. I'm excited for you. I'm excited to be there. I'm excited to be presenting. I'm really honored by that. I think everybody should, if they have the time on their calendar, try to attend this conference, because there's very, very few conferences where multi-disciplinary professionals are together, sharing ideas and thinking. That's the future of the financial services world and the legal world, is working together in collaborative teams. I don't think there's any other possibility for us to continue to work in the high net worth world without working in teams, and working in teams effectively.